Miriam Merad

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Miriam Merad, born in 1969 in Paris, is an Algerian-born scientist who studies cancer immunology. She works at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where she is the Dean for Translational Research and Therapeutic Innovation, the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor of Immunology, and the director of the Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute (PrIISM). In 2018 she received the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic Immunology. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Merad earned her medical degree from the University of Algiers in 1985, completed residency in hematology and oncology at Paris Diderot University, and earned a Master’s in Biotechnology from Paris Diderot. She then moved to Stanford University to earn a PhD in Edgar Engleman’s lab. Her clinical training in Paris sparked her interest in immunotherapy, and she collaborated with Irving Weissman at Stanford to advance understanding of macrophages and dendritic cells.

She joined Mount Sinai in 2004, received an Endowed Chair in Cancer Immunology in 2014, was named Director of the Immunology Institute in 2016, and in August 2023 became the founding Chair of the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy. In April 2024 she was named Dean for Translational Research and Therapeutic Innovation.

Merad’s research includes uncovering how tissue-resident dendritic cells and macrophages develop, and the embryonic origins of these cells. Her work shows how these cells contribute to tissue functions such as brain connections, gut movement, fat metabolism, and blood vessel health. In cancer, her team studies how different macrophage lineages in tumors shape the immune environment, and how aging changes immune cells to influence cancer and neurodegeneration. She has helped create the International Immunoschool (founded 2015) and contributed to trials in cancer immunotherapy and Long COVID, as well as research on immigrants in U.S. science and the experiences of mothers who are scientists.